Top Items:
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Crack Pipe — I'm watching a lot of neoconservative policy activists and a lot of people in the press telling me that it's a very up in the air thing whether Chuck Hagel gets confirmed as Secretary of Defense. These folks should stop smoking crack. Because crack isn't good for you.
Discussion:
Guardian, Politico, Balloon Juice and The Hill
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Fred Kaplan / Slate:
The Real Reason Republicans Hate Hagel — It has more to do with President Obama than the former senator from Nebraska. — It's good news that President Obama will nominate Chuck Hagel as his secretary of defense, despite the frantic campaign against him that's been mounted by certain Republicans.
Discussion:
BuzzFeed, The Week, The Daily Dish, Mondoweiss, Right Turn and Via Meadia
Jennifer Rubin / Right Turn:
Topsy-turvy Hagel politics — President Obama wants to get credit for bipartisanship, so he picks a Republican defense secretary who will garner few if any Republican votes. He walks away from a politically loyal African American woman for secretary of state (whose nomination would open …
Discussion:
Politico, Power Line, NationalJournal.com, Hot Air, Washington Free Beacon, Forbes, CNN and Daniel W. Drezner
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Why Hagel Matters — According to various reports …
Why Hagel Matters — According to various reports …
Discussion:
Hullabaloo, Mother Jones, Mondoweiss, Wired and Firedoglake
Elliott Abrams / Weekly Standard:
Mr. Hagel and the Jews — During the hearings on Chuck Hagel's …
Mr. Hagel and the Jews — During the hearings on Chuck Hagel's …
Discussion:
Power Line
Peter Beinart / The Daily Beast:
Why Hagel Matters — If the former senator is confirmed …
Why Hagel Matters — If the former senator is confirmed …
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, AEIdeas, No More Mister Nice Blog, Crooks and Liars and The Daily Caller
Rick Jacobs / The Huffington Post:
Why Chuck Hagel Should Be Secretary of Defense
Why Chuck Hagel Should Be Secretary of Defense
Discussion:
ABCNEWS, CNN, ABCNEWS, Mother Jones, Omaha World-Herald and Washington Monthly
Michael Schwirtz / New York Times:
Obama Expected to Pick Chuck Hagel for Defense Post
Obama Expected to Pick Chuck Hagel for Defense Post
Discussion:
The Plum Line, Reuters, JustOneMinute, Politico, The Atlantic Online, First Read, msnbc.com, Lawfare, emptywheel, The Week, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Taylor Marsh, Quartz, The BLT, The Caucus and ThinkProgress
Mickey Kaus / The Daily Caller:
Hagel's Mideast blunder-not on Israel
Hagel's Mideast blunder-not on Israel
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online and The Week
Devin Dwyer / ABCNEWS:
Obama Taps Hagel for Defense, Girds for Fight
Obama Taps Hagel for Defense, Girds for Fight
Discussion:
NationalJournal.com, Ricochet Conversations Feed, Politico, ABCNEWS, Politicker, The Week and Taegan Goddard's …
Stephen Moore / Wall Street Journal:
The Education of John Boehner — Leverage for the next clash: GOP willingness to let the spending sequester take effect. — What stunned House Speaker John Boehner more than anything else during his prolonged closed-door budget negotiations with Barack Obama was this revelation …
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Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Democrats look for up to $1 trillion in new tax revenues this year — Democrats say they want to raise as much as $1 trillion in new revenues through tax reform later this year to balance Republican demands to slash mandatory spending. — Democratic leaders have had little time to craft …
Discussion:
Hot Air, The New Republic, Weasel Zippers, The Plum Line, New York Times, Vodkapundit, The Gateway Pundit and The Reaction
Elisabeth Arriero / The Charlotte Observer:
Man ID'd as Rand Paul's son arrested at airport — A teenager identified in several media outlets as the son of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul and the grandson of former presidential candidate Ron Paul was arrested Saturday morning at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
Discussion:
Gawker, Politico, ABCNEWS, The Raw Story and The Hinterland Gazette
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Herb Keinon / Jerusalem Post:
Rand Paul in Israel: US foreign aid can't be one-way
Rand Paul in Israel: US foreign aid can't be one-way
Discussion:
The Hill and The Daily Caller
Josh Haskell / ABCNEWS:
Senator Rand Paul's Son Arrested at Charlotte Airport
Senator Rand Paul's Son Arrested at Charlotte Airport
Discussion:
Post Politics, Business Insider and Joe. My. God.
Josh Gerstein / Politico:
John Brennan tapped to lead CIA — President Barack Obama will announce Monday that he's nominating the White House's point person on counterterrorism, John Brennan, to be the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency, White House officials told POLITICO.
Discussion:
CNN, Politics, Power …, Business Insider and Israel Matzav
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Scott Shane / New York Times:
Counterterror Adviser to be Named Chief of C.I.A.
Counterterror Adviser to be Named Chief of C.I.A.
Discussion:
Guardian, emptywheel, Taylor Marsh, Outside the Beltway and msnbc.com
Paul Krugman:
Be Ready To Mint That Coin — Should President Obama be willing to print a $1 trillion platinum coin if Republicans try to force America into default? Yes, absolutely. He will, after all, be faced with a choice between two alternatives: one that's silly but benign, the other that's equally silly but both vile and disastrous.
Discussion:
Business Insider, The Week, Mother Jones and Capital New York
Paul Krugman:
The Outside Man — Yes, I've heard about the notion that I should be nominated as Treasury Secretary. I'm flattered, but it really is a bad idea. — Part of the reason is that I am indeed the World's Worst Administrator — and that does matter. Someone else can do the paperwork …
Discussion:
Politico, Ballot Box, Weekly Standard, The Daily Caller, Outside the Beltway, Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, Mediaite and Economist's View
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
The Big Fail — It's that time again: the annual meeting of the American Economic Association and affiliates, a sort of medieval fair that serves as a marketplace for bodies (newly minted Ph.D.'s in search of jobs), books and ideas. And this year, as in past meetings …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, CANNONFIRE and Prairie Weather
Alex Pareene / Salon:
The conservative movement is still an elaborate moneymaking venture — The story of FreedomWorks' big Glenn Beck payout encapsulates the right-wing media — The conservative media movement exists primarily as a moneymaking venture. As Rick Perlstein explained in the Baffler …
Discussion:
Firedoglake and The Immoral Minority
Christine Haughney / New York Times:
After Pinpointing Gun Owners, Paper Is a Target — WHITE PLAINS — Local newspapers across the country look for stories that will bring them national attention, but The Journal News, a daily nestled in a wooded office park in a suburb north of New York, may have gotten more than it bargained for.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, Right Wing News and Capital New York, more at Mediagazer »
Ashley Killough / CNN:
Booker says he has ‘deep respect and love’ for Lautenberg — (CNN) - Democratic Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, who announced intentions to explore a U.S. Senate bid in 2014, said he hasn't yet spoken with Sen. Frank Lautenberg about whether the longtime Democratic senator plans to run for re-election next year.
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Meghashyam Mali / Ballot Box:
Booker wants to give Lautenberg ‘space’ to decide on reelection bid
Booker wants to give Lautenberg ‘space’ to decide on reelection bid
Discussion:
Politico
Adam Peck / ThinkProgress:
Tea Party Senator: 'I Don't Think What Washington Needs Is More Compromise' — For the last two years, Republicans in Congress have achieved new levels of obstructionism never before seen in Washington, passing fewer bills than any other session of Congress since such information began being recorded in the 1940s.
Discussion:
Mother Jones
Choe Sang-Hun / New York Times:
American Delegation Arrives in North Korea on Controversial Private Trip — SEOUL, South Korea — Bill Richardson, the former governor of New Mexico, led a private delegation including Eric Schmidt, Google's executive chairman, to North Korea on Monday, a controversial trip to a country that is among the most hostile to the Internet.
Discussion:
Weekly Standard, Gawker and Twitchy